$10-a-day child care will continue into the 2026-27 fiscal year.

To ensure this is successful the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development will develop a steering committee that will make recommendations regarding changes and benefit improvements for early childhood educators. These changes will help to recruit more educators to work in child care and retain those already in the workforce.

The Early Childhood Educator Steering Committee requested by the sector will include representative groups of educators from across the province and the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Newfoundland and Labrador. It will inform changes to the wage grid and workforce policies and help develop an implementation plan for benefits. This work will also help identify current workforce challenges and propose potential solutions.

The steering committee will subsequently undertake consultations. Participants who are interested can contact educommunityrelations@gov.nl.ca.

The steering committee is in addition to recent investments within the sector. These enhancements include increases to the meal rates per child to reflect the increased cost of food and groceries as well as introducing the Early Learning Gateway which helps providers to connect families on a wait list with a child care space while reducing administrative burden. Our Government, through the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development will introduce an early childhood educator portal to the Early Learning Gateway to ensure up to date access to information related to the profession.

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“We recognize the important role that early childhood educators play in the lives of the children and families in our province. Our Blue Book outlines a commitment to support early childhood educators by promoting access to pension plans and paid sick leave. We remain committed to that. We need to hear from early childhood educators on their priorities and daily realities. The establishment of a steering committee will provide us with valuable feedback from early childhood educators, which we will use to develop the next steps of our plan to implement more benefits for these valuable professionals. We look forward to discussing this with them as soon as possible.”
Honourable Paul Dinn
Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development

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